Diesel way of driving

I'm not sure that there really is a way of driving turbo diesels. I know my Xantia is a bit more rev conscious than my old non -turbo BX which you could stick in top and drive all day. Depends what you are trying to do, maximise economy or performance. I find that driving gently i.e. not maximum acceleration and keeping the speed to the speed limits certainly improves the mpg but then that's standard anyway.

-- Malc

Use the grunt between 2500 to 4000 rpm then change up. No point in revving it in every gear, it'll just run out of steam and hit the governer.

You'll probably need to do a few more tankfuls to get a good estimate of your mpg, but from experience of the 1.9 Pug TD, you shouldn't be able to do worse than 35-40mpg on short city driving unless you're spending oodles of time at idle. With a TD, you can't just plonk your foot on the floor and expect it to do interesting things, you need to 'feed in' with the loud pedal. If the revs are less than about 2100, then don't expect much, but a steady ingrease[1] of the accelerator above this will make progress easier on clearer roads. If you need a bit of poke, drop a gear. If not, keep the revs low enough to not excite the turbo too much, but high enough not to shake your fillings loose - same as a petrol, really, but don't forget that you can't drop and rev to 6500prm........well, you can, but only once.

[1] Originally a typo, but appropriate to diesels!

Tom.

That's about 36 mpg, which isn't too bad for city driving, although you might get a bit more with practice. The equivalent petrol car would struggle to average 30 in the same conditions (check the "urban" fuel consumption figure).

As others have said, you need to establish where the "power band" is and make use of it. Below that it will trundle around happily enough but have very little grunt, above that it will rapidly run out of breath.

If you're used to driving a 16v petrol car and giving it some revs it takes getting used to.

--

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." (WilliamPitt, 1783)

Don't chase the power, but feed the torque.

Tom's come up with some good points, and there's a nerdy article on my site about fuel consumption and turbodiesels' "turbo sweet spot" for long haul cruising.

The message from "Tom Saul" contains these words:

That's what the shed calls ToBAGO - Typo But A Good One.